GIFTS LARGE AND SMALL BOOST CHARITIES; TRIBUTES CONTINUE AS BRITAIN PLANS MEMORIAL.

Byline: Maureen Johnson Associated Press 

Donations poured in to a fund for Princess Diana's favorite charities and thousands more flowers piled up outside her former home Sunday while Britain planned a permanent memorial.

Gifts to the fund ranged from a child's 20-pence coin stuck on a card, worth about 30 cents, to a $4.8 million corporate gift.

A church service drew 3,000 people to Durham Cathedral in northeastern England, one of several memorial services for Diana held across Britain on Sunday.

``We are thankful for her reality as a human being and the spark and compassion she brought to public life,'' Bishop Michael Turnbull said at Durham Cathedral.

``We identify with her failings and her search for meaning and identity.''

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had conferred with Diana about a new public role, perhaps as a goodwill ambassador for Britain, appointed a committee to work with Diana's family on a permanent memorial.

``People want some good to emerge from this,'' Blair said in a BBC television interview. ``They want something that allows us to say, as a result of what happened, we have changed and compassion is the best legacy.''

The death of Diana and her new millionaire boyfriend, Dodi al-Fayed, in a high-speed flight from photographers has both shaken the monarchy and ignited outrage over intrusive coverage of the royals.

Prince Charles took Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 12, to his country residence, Highgrove, and pleaded for the media to give his sons some privacy.

``The Prince of Wales wants some time and space for the boys so they can come to terms with their loss and prepare for the future,'' said a statement issued by his office.

At Diana's funeral Saturday, her brother, the 9th Earl Spencer, accused newspapers and photographers of making her ``the most hunted woman in the world.''

Pledging to protect the young princes from being swallowed up in the royal protocol Diana found suffocating, Charles Spencer said he would do his best to continue her ``imaginative way'' of raising them.

Queen Elizabeth II bowed to criticism that she remained aloof from the national grief before the funeral. She went against tradition to walk among mourners, make a national broadcast and lower the flag to half-staff at Buckingham Palace.

Blair, who played a key role in defusing public anger with the royals, defended the queen in a BBC television interview.

``The royal family has had a very hard time this week. . . . The way they've coped with it is to their credit,'' he said.

Tens of thousands of people came to Kensington Palace, Diana's former home, on Sunday even though she is now interred at the Spencer family's ancestral home in the English countryside.

The government said the flowers, toys and other tributes pinned to railings will be given to hospitals and homes for the aged.

Dead flowers will be turned into compost to grow new plants in Kensington Gardens. The Department of Culture said the cleanup will not start before Tuesday. Reflecting Diana's commitment to charities, it urged young people to register for a task force and do the work for free.

``This is the fourth time I've been here since last Sunday,'' said Arax Carapit, at Kensington Palace with a friend. ``She was an amazing woman, absolutely of her time.''

After the funeral, Elton John recorded the new version of ``Candle in the Wind'' that he performed at the funeral. The proceeds will go to Diana's favorites charities, which included AIDS, cancer and the homeless.

A record 31.5 million Britons, 59 percent of the population, watched Saturday's funeral, the British Audience Research Bureau said. That eclipsed the 22 million who watched Charles and Diana's 1981 wedding.